close
Edmé Jacques Genet to John Adams: A Translation
Docno: PJA08d257
Recipient: JA
Date: 1780-02-25
[dateline] Versailles, 25 February 1780
[salute] Sir
I will not fail to inform the Count Vergennes of the letter with which you have honored me.1
I will also write to Ostend to ask them to send, under my name, two gazettes, the most influential in each party. To my mind they are, for the Opposition, the General Advertiser, published by W. Parker—and
{p. 368}
for the Ministry, the Morning Post. These are the two that I will request and forward to you regularly. In the meantime, I will lend you some of my own copies when I can. I am enclosing the General Advertiser of the 17th, which you can return at your convenience. I will inform you when your own copies are sent so that you may keep them.
Dare I ask you for news of your son and whether he returned with you? My own leaves for Germany in eight days.2 Please give my regards to Mr. Francis Dana.
Did you remember my request for copies of the new constitutions I was unable to obtain? If you did not have time to gather them, being only briefly in America, you might still do so through your friends, and I would be grateful to you.
I have the honor to be, with an unshakable attachment, sir, your very humble and very obedient servant
[signed] Genet
RC
Adams Papers
; docketed by John Thaxter: “Mr. Genet 25th. Feby. 1780 ansd. 26th Feby. 1780.”
1. Of 24 Feb. (above).
2. Edmond Charles Genet, later first minister from the French Republic to the United States and known then as “Citizen Genet.” In 1780 he was 17 years old and, after studying at Geissen and Berlin and serving on the staff of the French ambassador at Vienna, became head of the foreign ministry's translation bureau upon his father's death in 1781 (
DAB
).
To Edmé Jacques Genet
Docno: PJA08d258
Recipient: Genet, Edmé Jacques
Date: 1780-02-26
[dateline] [Paris Hotel de Valois Rue de Richelieu Feb. 26. 1780 ]
[salute] [Sir]
I have just now recieved the [Letter,] which You did me the Honor to write me yesterday[, and I] thank You, Sir, for the Loan of the English Paper[s, which I] shall carefully return, and beg the Loan of the oth[ers, as y]ou can spare them, until those shall arrive, which [you] have ordered for me: for the Trouble you have taken [in] ordering those Papers; for your kind Enquiries after my Son, who has accompanied me in all my Peregrination[s, a]nd is now at M. Pechinis Pension at Passy,1 with another [of] my Sons, and a Granchild of Dr. Cooper's, whose Name and Character You know, all three of whom I brought with me, through a dangerous Voyage and a wearisome Journey, for the Sake of giving them an early Acquaintance with this Country, its Language &c. I wish your worthy Son a good Voyage and all possible Success.2
I have made your Compliments to Mr. Dana, who desires me to return You his Respects.
I shall inclose with this, [a Projected Constitution for] the Massachusetts Bay,3 which is [now under the Consider]ation of the Conven•
{p. 369}
tion of that State, in [which you will] see a full and true Account of all my publi[c, and most] of my private Occupations during my short [Residence] at Home. My fellow Citizens were pleased, on my [Arrival] to elect me into the Convention, whose Deliber[ations wi]th those of their Committees and Sub-Committe[s,4 took up] all my Time, until I recieved Orders to return to [Europe.]
I was not able to make a compleat Collection of American Constitutions, while I was at Hom[e:] but if You will inform me, which of the Constitutions you have not, I will write immediately to Philadelphia, and even to Congress, upon the Subject, and I dare an[swer] for it, You will be furnished with them as soon as possi[ble.]
I am, Sir, with an affectionate Attachmen[t,] your most obedient Servant.
[signed] John Adams
RC
in John Thaxter's hand with additions by JAJustin G. Turner, Los Angeles, 1958
LbC
Adams Papers
. Fire damage to the RC has resulted in the loss of a substantial number of words, which have been supplied from the Letter book copy.
1. For the school of M. Pechigny, see
Adams Family Correspondence
, 3:272–273, and JQA, Diary
, 1:34.
2. This sentence was entered on the recipient's copy by JA after John Thaxter had copied the text from the Letterbook. The addition was then recorded in the Letterbook, perhaps by Thaxter.
3. This was one of the several copies of The Report of a Constitution,
[ca. 28–31 Oct. 1779]
(above), that JA had brought to Europe for distribution.
Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2007.
http://www.masshist.org/ff/
http://www.masshist.org/ff/